Closure remover with slidable toothed wheel



May 12, 1953 C. L. CUDEBEC CLOSURE REMOVER WITH SLIDABLE TOO'IHED WHEELFiled May 27, 1949 llilll Patented May 12, 1953 CLOSURE REMOVER WITHSLIDABLE TOOTHED WHEEL Clyde L. Cudebcc, deceased, late of Glendale,Calif., by A. W. Lane, administrator, Glendale,

Calif.

Application May 2'2, 1949, Serial No. 95,688

2 Claims.

This invention relates to openers, and more particularly to a wrenchtype opener adapted to open any screw type closure such as rings, caps,covers or the like commonly found on cans, jars or bottles.

The invention is adapted to open varying sizes of closures either withsmooth or corrugated rim.

It is, accordingly, one object of this invention to provide an improvedopener of the type described, adaptable to varying size closures.

It is another object of this invention to provide an opener of the typedescribed having alternate means for clamping the closure, dependinguponthe size of the closure being operated on.

It is a feature of this invention that means are provided in the openerfor engaging the closure to be opened, which means are disposed to oneside of a line drawn through the axis of the opener so that on turningthe opener the means are urged into closer engagement with the closurerather than urged to disengagement.

These other objects and features of the present invention will beapparent from the annexed specification in which Figure 1 is aperspective elevation of an opener embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a section taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an exploded elevation of the slide, toothed wheel, pinionand saddle employed in this invention Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectiontaken on the line 4- of Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the device shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 6 is a fragmentary side view showing the opener engaging theclosure member.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the opener is shown ascomprising a frame member it having a bottom wall ll, side walls 2 andI3, and inturned upper flanges M and i5, thus forming a channel. Theflanges It and 15 may be extended inwardly towards the rear of theopener, as shown at 16 and H. Handle extentions it and It may beprovided upon the side walls I 2 and I3 joined together as at 2t. One ofthe inturned flanges, shown here as a flange M, is provided with atoothed rack 2!. Towards the front of the opener, there is provided uponthe flanges hi and I5 upturned portions 22 and 23 having rearwardly bentportions 24 and 25, thus presenting generally vertically extending edges26 and 2? and edges 28 and 29 for purposes hereinafter described. Amxedto the bottom wall ll, of the frame member, towards the forward endthereof as by means of rivets (it is a leaf spring iii. A slide 32 isprovided, most clearly shown in Figure 3, and preferably having theconfiguration there shown. The slide 32 is slotted as at 33, 3d, 35 and36, and provided with downwardly bent legs 3'1, 38, t9 and it. The lowerends of the legs Sl-dfi are outwardly bent as at M, 42, S3 and i i,forming projections, which projections ii-4t are adapted to underlie theflanges i l and 15 while the slide 32 proper is adapted to overlie theflanges it and i5 and ride thereon.

The slide 32 has a further downwardly bent portion 55 carrying a thumbbutton 46 thereon. The portion $5 is adapted to overlie the side memberl2, as most clearly shown in Figures 1 and 2.

The slide 32 is bored as at M to receive the shaft it of a pinion (l9and when assembled, the shaft it carries on its upper end. a toothedwheel '5. The slide 32 is also pierced as at 5! and 52 to receive thelugs 53 of the saddle 54 adapted to surround and protect and mount thepinion 39. The bore 41 is disposed to one side of a medial line drawnlongitudinally through the slide 32, thus mounting the toothed wheel tothe right, as shown in Figure 2, of an axis drawn longitudinally throughframe 19.

Referring to Figure 5, it will be noted that the leaf spring Si is alsodisposed to the same side of the longitudinal axis of the frame l3 andpositioned so that its upper curved portion 55 can resiliently engagethe saddle 54 and normally hold the slide 32 towards forward position.

The operation of the opener just described is as follows:

The opener, as shown in Figure 1, is inverted, as shown in Figure 6 andplaced upon the top of a closure 651. The slide 32 is withdrawn towardsthe rear of the opener, the portion 55 of the leaf spring 3! beingdisengaged from the saddle 54. Depending upon the size of the closure60, one side of this closure will be engaged by a pair of the verticallyextending edges either the pair 26, 27 or the pair 28, 29 and the otherside of the closure will be engaged by the toothed wheel 50 when theslide 32 is projected forwardly to cause such engagement. It will beappreciated, that as the slide 32 is moved forwardly or rearwardly uponthe frame it, the pinion 1-39 engages the rack 2| and thus revolves thetoothed wheel. The teeth of this wheel. 58 are slanted towards thecounterclockwise direction, as shown in Figure 3, and as the toothedwheel 56 is mounted to the leithand side of the longitudinal medial lineof the opener when the opener is inverted. as

shown in Figure 6, turning of the opener counterclockwise will tend toforce the teeth of the wheel 58 into firm engagement with the edge ofthe closure 68].

The length of the flanges 14 and i5 and, accordingly, of the rack 2|between the forward end and the shoulders, formed by the portion l6 andi! is considerable and permits wide range of travel of the slide thusadapting the opener to a wide range of closures and the provision of thecomplementary pairs of upstanding edges 26, 2'1 and 28, 2 adapts theforward end of the opener to similarly engage the wide range of sizes ofclosures.

It has been found in practice, that this opener, with a slight turn, canopen practically any type of screw-type closure either of the smooth orserrated type.

While there has been described What is at presentconsidered a preferredembodiment of the present invention, it will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art, that various changes and modiiications can be madetherein without departing from the essence of the invention and it isintended to cover herein all such changes and modifications as comewithin the true spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An opener comprising a channel-shaped frame member; inturned flangeson said channelshaped fram member; a slide having projections thereonadapted to ride on said inturned flanges and having legs havingoutwardly bent portions engageable under said flanges; a rack formedupon one of said flanges; a pinion carried by said slide and engagingsaid rack; a toothed wheel mounted on said slide and connected with saidpinion to rotate therewith; and jaw members on the forward end of saidframe adapted to engage one side of a closure to be opened while saidtoothed wheel engages the other side of said closure member, saidtoothed wheel being mounted on said slide to one side of a longitudinalaxis drawn through said frame member.

2. An opener as set forth in claim 1 in which said toothed Wheel isprovided with teeth slanting in a clockwise direction when in operativeposition, said wheel being mounted on the left side of said longitudinalaxis when said opener is placed in operative position over an underlyingclosure and with said forward end of said frame disposed outwardly fromthe operator.

A. W. LANE,

Administrator with the wiZZ annexed of the estate of Clyde L. Cudebec,deceased.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,896,437 Allen Feb. 7, 1933 2,043,144 Argauer June 2, 19362,495,004 Haucl; Jan. 17, 1950

